Commentary on the economic , geopolitical and simply fascinating things going on. Served occasionally with a side of snark.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

US suffers a huge foreign policy own goal -- "Fuck The EU" - US State Department Blasts Europe; Revealed As Alleged Mastermind Behind Ukraine Unrest ...... And in hgih irony ( in light of the NSA recording not just private communications of US citizens , but also global communication intercepts of foreign leaders / foreign companies , we see the US complaining about an intercepted communication on an allegedly unsecured line ???? Lol ! Hubris defined when one assumes you have a god given right to spy on others at will but no one should spy on you.......

Russian govt not complicit in US diplomat's 'F**k the EU' call leak, official says

A Russian official, who tweeted a bugged phone conversation in which a senior US diplomat is heard saying “f**k the EU" while discussing ways to end the political crisis in Ukraine, has denied that Russia was involved in leaking the recording.

Dmitry Loskutov, an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, said he spotted a four-minute video, titled ‘Maidan puppets’ uploaded on YouTube with Russian-language captions, quite by chance. The origin of the recording is not clear. The video was first reported in the Kyiv Post.

When the White House correspondent, Peter Baker, asked Loskutov "How did it come up on the internet for you?" the Russian official explained on his Twitter that it happened when he was innocently surfing the web while his boss was away at a meeting. Loskutov stressed that his decision to repost the video on his personal Twitter page the next day had nothing to do with his daily work for the government.

Ukraine's Security Service has also denied its involvement in disclosure of the leaked telephone conversation of the Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, the Unian news agency has reported, citing Security Service press-office head, Lada Safonova.

"The Security Service of Ukraine denies any assumptions about Ukrainian intelligence services involvement in the public disclosure of this material," Safonova said on Saturday.

In the much talked-about clip, Washington's new top diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, is heard saying “f**k the EU" while speaking with her counterpart, an American Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyat, on how to end the ongoing political crisis in Ukraine.

The embarrassing conversation revolves around the Ukraine government and President Viktor Yanukovich's offer last month to make opposition leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the new Prime Minister and Vitaly Klitschko, Deputy Prime Minister.

“I don’t think that Klitschko should go into the government. I don’t think it is necessary. I don’t think it is a good idea,” Nuland appears to say. In her view, Yatsenyuk should be in charge of the new government, but Klitschko would not get along with him. “It’s just not going to work,” she notes.

“In terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework,” a male voice - believed to be Pyatt - replies. “In terms of the process moving ahead, we want to keep the moderate democrats together,” he adds.

The leaked conversation's powerful climax finally comes when Nuland says she was told that UN chief Ban Ki-moon is about to appoint the former Dutch ambassador to Kiev, Robert Serry, as his representative in Ukraine."That would be great I think to help glue this thing and have the UN glue it and you know, f**k the EU,"she remarks in apparent reference to their differences over policies.

EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy (AFP Photo / Georges Gobet)

Pyatt replies: "We've got to do something to make it stick together, because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it."

The US State Department has not denied the authenticity of the video, which went viral on the internet, and stressed that Nuland had apologized for the "reported comments." However, she offered no further explanation which had been expected from her during a press conference in Kiev the next day.“I will not comment on a private diplomatic conversation," she told reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders.

Instead of apologizing for plans to meddle with politics in Ukraine, US diplomats have chosen to accuse Russia of leaking the recording. White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Thursday that Loskutov's post clearly pointed to Moscow's possible involvement.

US State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, has also attacked Russian officials for promoting the tape as "a new low in Russian tradecraft." She denied that the White House was trying to orchestrate a particular political scenario in Kiev, however.

"Absolutely not," she claimed. "It should be no surprise that US officials talk about issues around the world. Of course we do. That's what diplomats do," Psaki added.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed outrage over the leaked phone conversation. Her spokeswoman emphasized on Friday that Merkel considered Nuland's comment"absolutely unacceptable," adding that the European Union will continue with its "intensive efforts to calm the situation in Ukraine."

On Saturday, during an interview on Belgian television RTBF, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy also described Victoria Nuland's comments as unacceptable.

The Head of the European Council pointed out that the EU's policy towards Ukraine has been right, adding that "American colleagues should not interfere with the policy of the European Union."

US Diplomat Apologizes For Cursing

Ally

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the situation in the Ukraine, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Jan. 15, 2014. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

The State Department’s top official for Europe apologized today after being caught making a crude and dismissive remark about the European Union, one of America’s top allies.

The spokeswoman hinted that Russia had taped and leaked the phone call, calling it “a new low in Russian tradecraft.”

A leaked phone call posted on YouTube caught Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland saying “f—k the EU” while speaking with U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. Nuland used the expletive while complaining that the European Union hasn’t done enough to get Ukraine to break an agreement with Russia and instead sign on to a trade agreement with Europe.

Dmitry Loskutov, an aid to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, was among the first on Twitter to link to the video, which surfaced Tuesday. Along with the video link, Loskutov tweeted, “Sort of controversial judgment from Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking about the EU.”

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said today that Nuland has apologized for the remark and Psaki criticized the Russians for being quick to tweet a link to the recording.

“This is something [the Russian government] has been actively promoting, posting on, tweeting about and certainly that we feel represents a new low,” Psaki said during the State Department daily briefing, though she would not explicitly blame the Russians for recording or leaking the call.

Psaki would not say to whom Nuland apologized.

The four-minute conversation was about a Jan. 25 offer by Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovich to two opposition leaders, who want him to sign the EU deal, to become prime minister and deputy prime minister.

Nuland said she wanted one of the two leaders to join the government, but that another was too inexperienced and should stay outside officialdom.

Psaki said it’s common for diplomats to express private opinions that may not reflect what ultimately becomes the government’s official view. “What do you think happens behind closed doors when people are discussing issues internally through the interagency [process]?” she asked.

Asked if Nuland’s expletives reflected a wider frustration within the State Department towards the EU, Psaki said Nuland’s background of working on a Soviet fishing trawler in her early 20s meant she had a certain comfort level with expletives: “[S]he learned how to perfect, perhaps, certain words in a couple of languages. So perhaps it speaks to that more than a pervasive viewpoint.”

A leaked recording of a telephone conversation allegedly between US assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland and the US envoy to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt discussing who should be in Ukraine's next government has, according to The FT,threatened to fuel east-west tensions over the troubled nation's future. In apparent frustration with the EU – which has failed to join the US in threatening sanctions against Ukraine’s leaders if they violently crush the protests – the voice resembling Ms Nuland at one point exclaims "Fuck the EU". As the two US diplomats decide whether "Klitsch" or "Yats" should be 'in' or 'out', listeners will be reminded (uncomfortably) that the governments of Ukraine and Russia previously alleged that the protests are being funded and orchestrated by the US.

The authenticity of the recording has not been confirmed (though comparisons to Nuland's recent media appearances provide some confidence) - the FT reported that the US embassy in Kiev declined to comment, which is a tacit admission: if the clip was a fake, the US would immediately make it clear.

Needless to say, as the FT adds, "[this clip]could also bolster a propaganda campaign by the governments of Ukraine and Russia alleging that the protests that erupted against Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich last November are being funded and orchestrated by the US." Its release ahead of the day the Sochi Olympics start is also somewhat disturbing.

An excerpt on the US meddling...

“I think Yats [Yatsenyuk] is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience,” Nuland says. “What he needs is Klitsch [Klitschko] and [Oleh] Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in, he’s going to be at that level, working for Yatsenyuk, it’s just not going to work.”

Pyatt agrees.

“Let me work on Klitschko,” he can be heard saying, “and I think we should get a Western personality to come out here (to Ukraine) and midwife this thing.”

The controversial alleged Nuland "Fuck The EU" clip... (the discussion of the EU and UN involvement begins around 2:50)

And for comparison's sake - Nuland last month delivering a statement on the situation in Ukraine...

In a clip posted on YouTube, voices resembling those of Victoria Nuland, a US assistant secretary of state, and Geoffrey Pyatt, ambassador to Ukraine, are heard talking by telephone about how to resolve the stand-off in Kiev after two months of anti-government protests.

In apparent frustration with the EU – which has failed to join the US in threatening sanctions against Ukraine’s leaders if they violently crush the protests – the voice resembling Ms Nuland at one point exclaims “F**k the EU”.

...

The two voices suggest Arseny Yatseniuk, the opposition leader and a former foreign minister, should be in a new government in Kiev. But Vitali Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxer and identified as “top dog” among opposition leaders, is also described as inexperienced and needing to “do his political homework”.

The voice resembling Ms Nuland refers to the two men as “Yats” and “Klitsch”.

...

It could also bolster a propaganda campaign by the governments of Ukraine and Russia alleging that the protests that erupted against Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich last November are being funded and orchestrated by the US.

The Western powers represented by the EU and the US have nothing to stand on to protect Ukraine and can only offer lip-service at best. So once again, it appears that Ukraine is doomed and the best one can hope for there, is that Russia will allow the West to leave. The countdown goes forward and the political and economic crisis is indicative of what we see with the first shot across the bow in the rising trend of the Cycle of War.

If there was any doubt whether the intercepted "Fuck the EU" phone call between Assistant Secretary of State Nuland and the US Ambassador to the Ukraine Pyatt was authentic, it can now be laid to rest: in an earlier response to questions from reporters, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not dispute authenticity of recording and essentially confirmed it was real "I didn’t say it was inauthentic."

However, in the tried and true fashion of assigning blame elsewhere, the world learned that it was really all Russia's fault and the released intercept was a "new low of Russian tradecraft." Psaki added that there are moments "in every diplomatic relationship" when you disagree, Psaki says. But the absolute punchline: "It’s concerning that private conversation was recorded."

Perhaps maybe the NSA can opine on the concernability of a private conversation being recorded.

Then again in a world in which only the NSA is allowed to record every single private conversation, one can easily see why the State Dept thought it was safe to discuss its state subordination strategy over what appears to have been an unencrypted landline. At least the CIA used to communicate by encrypted redlines.

Finally, while Russian "tradecraft" may have hit a new low, so did US reputation and standing abroad, however offset by the humiliation and embarrassment of US foreign policymakers which has never been higher.